Hello and welcome to Emirati, a monthly newsletter from The National.
Home-grown talent Hamad Al Marar is proudly leading the UAE's defence giant Edge to global prominence and helping to safeguard the country he loves.
While degrees at prestigious overseas universities are often a golden ticket to career success, his path to the top has been forged here in the Emirates.
“I studied accounting. I graduated from Higher Colleges of Technology, married, four kids and have been in this industry for 20 years,” he tells me.
He didn’t go to an Ivy League university or a European engineering school.
He studied here. He stayed here. And today, he leads one of the most advanced defence groups in the region.
“I basically cannot live for long outside this country,” he said. “I like it here.”
He is proof that the UAE’s national institutions are producing talent at the highest level and that real sovereignty doesn’t just mean making your own weapons. It means growing your own leaders.
“I was fortunate to be at the right place, at the right place, and worked with brilliant teams to actually see this industry get formed in the way we see today,” he says.
The UAE's defence sector is data driven, technologically advanced and sovereign. It is Emirati.
Thank you for reading,
Shireena Al Nowais
Gulf War lessons a catalyst for UAE's military growth, Edge chief says
The Gulf had been on tenterhooks in recent weeks, until news of the ceasefire between Iran and Israel was met with a collective sigh of relief.
Conflict in this region, so close to home, is unfortunately nothing new, and at times like these lessons from the past can provide the greatest value. Sometimes, the ability to exercise force can be the best form of defence.
This was a lesson not lost on the Emirates when Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. It was at this moment, Hamad Al Marar told The National, that the UAE saw how vulnerable nations could be without control over their own defence capabilities.
The managing director and chief executive of Edge, the biggest defence conglomerate in the country, said it planted the seed of a homegrown industry built to protect national sovereignty.
“The defence industry in the UAE dates back to 1991,” he said. “Post the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the UAE saw the importance of starting the defence industry and creating sovereignty in several domains.”
Today, Edge is at the heart of that vision. Established in November 2019, the group was formed through a wave of mergers and acquisitions that brought together more than 35 entities into six advanced technology and defence clusters.
“Edge is the national champion when it comes to defence,” Mr Al Marar said. “We serve everything from the bullet to the satellite.”
Did you know?
Abu Dhabi's International Defence Exhibition (Idex) is the region's biggest defence expo. Held biennially, February's showpiece event attracted more than 1,500 exhibitors at 41 country pavilions.
Zap, jam or shoot? Inside the war on drones at Idex 2025
Swarms of explosive drones are a dark cloud in the minds of military commanders three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where many thousands of soldiers and armoured vehicles have succumbed to the weapons.
By some estimates, the majority of Russian and Ukrainian casualties has been caused by unmanned aircraft, mostly the smaller, short-range kind, compared with large American drones like the MQ-9 Reaper.
Not even heavily armoured vehicles are safe. In December, a US-made M1A1 Abrams tank was destroyed after six direct hits from Russian first-person view quadcopters. While it is not clear how many of the quadcopters missed or were downed before the tank was a write-off, defence planners are not taking any chances.
A wide range of counter-drone technology was on display at February's Idex 2025 defence exhibition in Abu Dhabi. It ranged from laser weapons to zap drones out of the sky to low-cost rockets that fill the sky with shrapnel and a “smart shooter” system that attaches to soldiers' guns and helps them to aim at fast-moving objects.
UAE’s Edge and Italy’s Fincantieri launch joint venture to manufacture naval vessels
UAE defence conglomerate Edge is teaming up with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to manufacture sophisticated naval vessels and sell them in different markets globally.
With a commercial pipeline worth about €30 billion ($32.42 billion), the new Abu Dhabi joint venture will be awarded “prime rights to non-Nato orders” as well as several “strategic orders by select Nato member countries”, leveraging the UAE’s government-to-government arrangements and export-credit financing packages, Edge said in February, when the deal was announced.
“This strategic agreement significantly enhances Edge's ability to design and build frigates and other large vessels, broadening its range of operations and marking a crucial advancement in the diversification of its maritime solutions portfolio,” Edge said.
Edge will hold a 51 per cent stake in the new joint venture, which also plans to develop an underwater programme for mid-size submarines.
